Roundabout Intersections

Hmmmmmmm
Roundabouts may be more expensive initially, but they cost next to nothing to maintain.

I love the 2 near me, mostly because I'm a major hoon and any chance to flog my M3 is taken.

Great place to practice car control and drifting.

And since the speed limit 20mph sign is yellow, they can't cite you for speeding.

What are you? 12?

I really like the one we have here. I remember when whole southern towns were built with round abouts with a park in the middle and the businesses on the perimeter.

reply to post by Restricted


I live in a town of 20,000. We have 7 roundabouts here. One road Is about 2km long with 3 roundabouts on it. We must like going round in circles. Sure beats the old traffic lights though. Sitting at a red light with no other car around is crazy and frustrating. At least going around in circles make you think you are getting somewher.

Bellor
Roundabouts are simple, people on your right have right of way and stay in your lane. Not really rocket science, we have them everywhere in the UK always have they just need to be used properly though a lot of highway planners dont seem to understand when to use a traffic light controlled cross roads instead of a round about or vice versa.

go stand in the corner and think about what you just said!

In the states they would give way to traffic entering from the LEFT
and they would travel around it the opposite direction
from us in the UK.

i know they are still some what rare in the US but properly placed
are a lot safer than a straight intersection.

i just wish the idiot planners here in the UK would stop putting
dam stop lights on the things which go's against the whole idea of an island/roundabout/rotary in the first place.

The Minneapolis area has tons of them, and in practice, they're useful. Unfortunately, the grand majority of Minnesota drivers are clueless and have a hard time maintaining flow. I live half-a-block from one and I hear screeching tires every day.

Restricted
Roundabouts are very convenient, if you're smart enough to use them. The US seems to be mentally handicapped that way.

Seems like spending millions of bucks to put one in where there is already a good enough intersection is not very smart. Who is mentally handicapped, the ones wasting taxpayer money or the ones who don't like them for various reasons.

reply to post by rickymouse


It depends on what the value of replacing it will do ..if you can speed up traffic flow and possibly reduce accidents since you have to do something at a roundabout not just go "phew didn't get totalled as i totally missed that intersection" since hitting a roundabout will seriously f-k up your vehicle (assuming it aint just a painted one)

The trouble with roundabouts is that 99% of Americans are too stupid to use them.

reply to post by Restricted


Stereotyping LOL

Is the technique of negotiating one actually taught by US driving schools?

practice on them is definitely required here in the UK

I dont see the conspiracy in roundabouts..
I happen to appreciate them.. I hate waiting at stop lights.. AND you have less of a chance for an accident head on. My cousin is a civil engineer whom is tasked with building these into communities.. Some people just dont like change..

ShayneJUK
reply to post by Restricted

 

Stereotyping LOL

Is the technique of negotiating one actually taught by US driving schools?

practice on them is definitely required here in the UK

I watch it daily, so personal experience not stereotyping.

I posted earlier about the increasing frequency of roundabouts in America. I suppose It was inevitable that the America-bashing would begin with people saying Americans are somehow mentally deficient in "getting it."

Nonsense. The only issue is familiarity. If a driver has literally never encountered a roundabout before you can't expect him to become an instant expert. Once roundabouts are in place and people get familiar with them, particularly with anticipated lane changes to get off on the right exit, it's as easy as any other traffic maneuver, but

they aren't all "easy" and anyone who says so is not being truthful either. Have you ever been through Portsmouth, England? Let me tell you about the roundabout into town. It's a triple. That means that exiting the first roundabout leads you immediately to a second roundabout, exiting which leads you to a third roundabout. It's a rather large series, so there are buildings in the middle of the circles with driveways leading into the roundabout from the parking lots of the buildings. Oh, and there is a railroad trestle over the whole lot. Because of the buildings and the railroad you can't really see what is happening until your are inside the roundabout, then you see a little at a time as yet another roundabout shows up. There are several dozen small signs "directing" you to the correct exit, kind of, if you manage to both see and recognize them. It's not like they are big green rectangles with huge arrows pointing to the correct lane. Naturally, you must be in the correct exit lane for your exit, and if you move over too early you exit on the previous exit rather than your own. Since there are way more than 4 exits to any one of these roundabouts cars are making their maneuvers to get into the correct lanes while in the midst of the circle, so there are many cars shifting lanes behind and in front of you as you are turning the circle trying to find your own exit. You get to do all this in about fifteen seconds tops.

You are doing this, mind you while driving a left-hand drive car trying to shift with your left hand (an interesting story all by itself) with what amounts to a huge outrigger (otherwise known as the passenger seat) hanging off to your left, the imagination of which is the only thing that will keep you off the left curb, ah, I mean "kerb," while driving on the left side of the road, yielding to cars coming from your right (not your left) and turning the circle clockwise, when your mind is telling you a head-on collision is imminent. This is done on narrow roads invented for narrow wagons, not cars, whose names change every block even though it's the same damn street, though named during the reign of Elizabeth I, which, of course, you've never driven, seen, nor heard of in your entire life. These roads are surrounded by "hedgerows" which grow a regulation 2.5 inches from the edges of the road so that you cannot see ahead. When reaching a bridge on a road that is passable by one car at a time, a sign will tell you that there is a hill ahead, restricting your vision and that the "road narrows."

You will do this only after having driven perhaps a couple three or four million miles and several decades on American roads, which you have trained your body to do and it subsequently does on pretty much automatic pilot on wide roads that have strange things like, you know, fog lines, margins, and stripes down the center.

Being able to do this and stay married in the process is a friggin' miracle.

The majority of roundabouts, or traffic circles as they are known in New Jersey, have been removed in the northern, more congested part of the state. We also enjoy watching all you out-of-staters try to make left hand or u-turns at highway traffic lights instead of using the jug handles. Maybe it is a conspiracy.

reply to post by Restricted


You're only young once, but you can be immature forever.

I believe in enjoying life, and speed is my enjoyment.

I'll be doing hard redline pulls and flogging my car until I'm 80.

I don't like em....the conspiracy is in fact that we are being Europeanized (is that your a pee'n my eyes?) anyways

On the plus side, no more traffic light camera tickets!
Didn't think about that one did ya city planners!

Doh!